WRDM-CD
WRDM-CD, virtual channel 19 (UHF digital channel 35), is a Class A Telemundo owned-and-operated television station licensed to Hartford, Connecticut, United States and serving the Hartford–New Haven television market. Owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal (itself a subsidiary of Comcast), it is a sister station to New Britain-licensed NBC owned-and-operated station WVIT (channel 30).2 The two stations share studios on New Britain Avenue in West Hartford, Connecticut and transmitter facilities on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, Connecticut. WRDM is available on Comcast Xfinity channel 13, Cox channel 20 and MetroCast Cablevision channel 18, but currently not on any satellite providers (though this will likely change in the near future, as carriage of WRDM will likely be compulsory to carry WVIT under retransmission consent rules). WRDM's programming is simulcast to the Pioneer Valley on WDMR-LD, virtual channel 50 (UHF digital channel 51), in Springfield, Massachusetts. History WRDM-CD signed on June 14, 1986; it claims to be the first Spanish-language television station in New England. The station initially operated on channel 13 under the call letters W13BF. On June 13, 1991, the station added a simulcast in Springfield, W65BX (channel 65). Initially, in addition to Telemundo programming, W13BF and W65BX aired programming in Italian from public broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI)'s international service, with additional programming in Greek and Polish. The television stations were joined by radio station WRDM (1550 AM, now WSDK) in 1993; on September 1, 1995, W13BF changed its call letters to WRDM-LP, and W65BX became WDMR-LP. WRDM radio was sold off in 1998. During the late 1990s, WDMR-LP's schedule also included English-language Boston Red Sox telecasts produced by Boston's WABU (now Ion Television owned-and-operated station WBPX-TV). By 1997, WRDM-LP's programming was simulcast in New Haven on W10BQ (channel 10, now defunct) and in Hartford on W11BJ (channel 11, now WFXQ-CD channel 28 in Springfield). Original owner Channel 13 Television sold WRDM-LP and WDMR-LP to ZGS Communications on March 27, 2001. In January 2006, WRDM-LP moved to channel 50; WDMR-LP moved to channel 51 that November. WRDM became a class A station as WRDM-CA on May 7, 2008. On November 15, 2012, WDMR flash cut from analog to digital as WDMR-LD; on January 7, 2013, WRDM followed suit and became WRDM-CD. WDMR-LD now serves as a complete simulcast of WRDM-CD. On December 4, 2017, NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group announced its purchase of ZGS' 13 television stations, including WRDM-CD and WDMR-LD. The sale was completed on February 1, 2018. The deal will make WRDM a sister station to NBC owned-and-operated station WVIT (channel 30), along with WNBC (channel 4) and WNJU (channel 47) to the southwest in New York City, and WBTS-LD (channel 8), WYCN-CD (channel 15) and WNEU (channel 60) to the northeast in Boston. WVIT began operating WRDM under a local marketing agreement on January 1, 2018 from WVIT's studios in West Hartford; WRDM later entered into a channel sharing agreement with WVIT. ZGS had sold WRDM's spectrum in the FCC's incentive auction for $10,574,516 and indicated that the station would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement. One immediate effect of the sale was the end of a brokered programming arrangement to carry English language Jewelry TV programming in overnights for Telemundo's regular overnight schedule, along with the addition of a Connecticut-specific part of the website for WNEU in place of the former WRDM website. Category:Telemundo affiliated stations Category:Channel 19 Category:Channel 50 Category:1986 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1986 Category:1991 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1991 Category:Hartford Category:New Haven Category:Connecticut Category:Springfield Category:Massachusetts Category:NBCUniversal Category:Former Rai Internazionale Americas affiliates Category:UHF Category:Other New England Stations